Notices by Richard Stallman (rms@mastodon.xyz)

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/apr/30/alarming-bug-splat-decline-uk-cars-fears-flying-insect-numbers

The population of flying insects in Britain fell by half from 2021 to 2023. In 2024 it did not bounce back. The cause is not known, but it can cause disaster for many kinds of plants, as well as birds, frogs, and other things that eat insects.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/may/01/second-italian-journalist-allegedly-targeted-with-mercenary-spyware

Italian journalists that have exposed fascist-leaning members of Melonu's right-wing governing Party have been attacked with spyware on their snooping devices. (They don't by default snoop for anybody and everybody.)

[2/2] hope that they share these feelings, despite the disadvantage that they must scramble to protect themselves from the right-wing extremists in the United States while resisting similar extremists in their own countries.

[1/2] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/may/01/western-world-diplomacy-american-democracy-trump

An American pleads for other countries to adopt policies that can lead/press the US back to democracy. *I firmly believe that the European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada and Japan have a historic obligation to the American people to do what they can to help us preserve our democracy. An America descending into authoritarianism also poses a threat to the democracies they lead.* I

[2/2] make medicine to treat and prevent HIV. What a shame to prevent us from getting rid of it first. Eliminating patents on medicines is very important. The three fields where patents are most harmful are agriculture, medicine and software.

[1/2] https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/apr/30/developing-world-aid-response-hiv-aids-winnie-byanyima
https://stallman.org/glossary.html#global%20heating
https://www.next.gen.oh.us/home/anton/reference/45_1_stallman.pdf

Just as the world came to have a chance to eliminate HIV through medicines that prevent its spread, the wrecker showed up and cancelled US plans to pay for doing that. If civilization falls due to global heating, we are likely to lose the technology to

[2/2] whole store for one dollar. But since he doesn't feel the need a valid excuse, the cheater won't hesitate to break it anyway to demand more money. You should prepare for any deal with him to be cancelled at any moment. Nonetheless, if this deal results in continued US military aid and that stops the advance of the Putin forces ( please don't call them "the Russians"), it is better than no agreement at all.

[1/2] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/30/us-ukraine-minerals-deal-russia
https://stallman.org/glossary.html#putinforces
https://stallman.org/articles/putin-forces.html

*US and Ukraine sign minerals deal* that sets up a way for Ukraine to pay the price of the military aid that the US has already donated. This agreement is not really a deal; rather, it is a general roadmap to reach a deal. This will give the cheater at least one excuse to start demanding that Ukraine sell the

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/may/01/israel-must-give-access-to-jailed-palestinians-uk-tells-world-court

*Israel must give Red Cross access to jailed Palestinians, Britain tells ICJ.* The crimes of HAMAS are grave, an many, but the crimes of Israel are comparably grave and far more numerous. Citing one side's crimes does not justify the other's.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/may/01/guantanamo-trump-deportations
https://stallman.org/glossary.html#bully

*I witnessed US cruelty as a Guantánamo lawyer. [The bully's] deportations are disturbingly familiar.*

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/01/rfk-mmr-vaccines-fetus-claim

*RFK Jr and [department of HHS] falsely claim MMR vaccine includes "aborted fetus debris".

[2/2] to many kinds of government pressure, and they have no tradition of seeing censorship as bad. If we get out of this mess, we should ban such mergers and break up those mergers.

[1/2] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/may/01/60-minutes-press-freedom

Paramount wants to do a merger, and Paramount owns CBS. That relationship enabled the represser to impose censorship on CBS. Last year, the FTC might have blocked the merger to preserve competition, but it would not have demanded power over CBS programming. It is clear that the purchase of news publishers by much bigger businesses is bad for the freedom of the press. These larger companies are vulnerable

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/may/01/uk-banks-put-75bn-into-firms-building-climate-wrecking-carbon-bombs-study-finds

*[London Banks] have poured more than $100bn (£75bn) into companies developing “carbon bombs” -- huge oil, gas and coal projects that would drive the climate past internationally agreed temperature limits with catastrophic global consequences.*

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/apr/30/trump-next-100-days

Robert Reich: If leaders stay silent, the US won't survive [the corrupter's] next 100 days.

https://stallman.org/glossary.html#saboteur
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/01/trump-100-days-climate-environment

*Charting 100 days of [the saboteur in chief]’s onslaught on the environment.*

https://stallman.org/glossary.html#wrecker
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/may/01/trump-air-climate-pollution-regulation-100-days

*[The wrecker] has launched more attacks on the environment in 100 days than his entire first term.*

https://theintercept.com/2025/04/30/mohsen-mahdawi-released-student-deportation-immigration-trump/

Mohsed Mahdawi has been freed on bail. There was never any reason to jail him except the Republican policy of intimidating all opposition into submission.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/30/el-salvador-cecot-mega-prison-trump

El Salvador's CECOT prison is more cruel than Guantanamo. The prisoners are kept incommunicado and have no legal rights. Anyone there can be sent to that prison on the "president"s whim. Other, older prisons there are (reportedly) even more cruel.

https://stallman.org/glossary.html#wrecker
https://theintercept.com/2025/04/30/trump-auto-car-tariffs-tesla-elon-musk/

The wrecker ordered reducing tariffs on cars from Canada, in a selective way that helps Tesla most of all.